Disclaimer:
I don't own the characters from any anime series found within this
Ranma 1/2 – Mystery crossover. Ranma and the other series (you'll
find out what it is in the next chapter) both are licensed by Viz
Media in America and are copyright their respective owners.

The
Revolution

Prologue

By
Dr. Suekeiichi Kaiton

It
was always dead in the middle of the day. People were at work or
school or cleaning house and so were not aimlessly wandering around
in a mall and certainly not browsing the frilly black dresses and
leather bondage wear in a gothic Lolita shop. The thin girl behind
the counter leaned over the thick glass panes of the display case and
sighed into her hand. Beside the skull rings and talon finger
coverings below her elbow were the skull-and-crossbones belt buckles,
beside those a selection of Grateful Dead illustration temporary
tattoos. The tall pink-haired girl perched precariously on a black
stool and waited impatiently for something to happen.

She'd
been working in the store for a year but still wasn't used to the
mid-afternoon lull, but then again for a normal boutique a lull would
be one or two customers instead of twenty, for Dark Designs the usual
pair sank down to nil. And so she waited while American horror rock
blared on the speaker system and Ozzy, Gene, Alice, and Rob started
down from the t-shirt wall. Frankly she had things to do but hadn't
the urge to do much of anything save muse on how bored she was
waiting.

The
girl wore a tight mauve and black striped long-sleeved turtleneck and
black jeans. Her hair was a shockingly dyed pink cropped close to
the nape with pointy bangs. Her eyes were cerulean orbs floating in
shadow as she watched the door. Creeps and freaks were the norm but
sometimes, just sometimes, average people with strange tastes walked
in, they were few and far between but they did shop and sometimes
flirt. She didn't appreciate it when fat hairy men with long hair,
smelling of BO and grease tried to pick her up, or when overweight or
just downright ugly or rude lesbians came in and tried to accost her
in the changing rooms. She just wasn't interested. She already
had a boyfriend and wasn't looking for anything more than the
occasional bump-and-grind routine every few nights, maybe some oral
for variety; she didn't want commitment, just sex. It was a
testament to this philosophy that she didn't live with her
boyfriend of nearly a year. Instead she lived in a crappy one-room
apartment above an Indian restaurant down the street from the mall
when she could have moved into his larger house in a quieter
district.

She'd
stayed many nights at his house but never broached the subject of
moving in together or advancing their relationship beyond the almost
casual-sex agreement between them. He was nice, caring, passionate,
but she wasn't looking for commitment. She really wasn't looking
for a job either but necessity demanded she pay her rent and eat so
she took a low-level job in a dead-end store. She didn't really
want to live, just exist; that was enough for now. The manager was
out again but trusted her enough to leave the keys to lock up at
closing, it wasn't like there was much money in the till to steal
or anything she'd want to wear in the store. The girl wore black
eyeliner and no lipstick, a black lace thong but no bra; if anyone
wanted to ogle her they could feel free. She frankly didn't care.

Across
town, Ranma Saotome looked up from the puddle of drool spread across
the table in front of him only to find the entire lecture hall empty,
the professor wiping clean the blackboard. The professor made no
move to chastise him or punish him for sleeping through his lecture,
he wasn't in high school anymore, but Ranma still felt chagrined to
know that he'd drooled all over the desk. Collecting his notebook
and bag from beside the chair, he sped out the door and through the
sunlit halls of the cram school. Due to extenuating circumstances,
i.e. the Tendo Situation as his mother termed it, he'd failed all
his entrance exams his senior year in high school and studied part
time ronin while working at a dojo down the street from his house.
If his mother felt shame that he was ronin she didn't show it, for
which he was very glad. Still, at least he didn't have to listen
to her bitch and moan about being manly since he started dating.
True, The Tendo Situation made romance complicated for the pigtailed
martial artist but with his mother's help he'd avoided the bigger
problems associated with cheating on no less than two fiancées.

The
only girls with claims on his honor any longer were Shampoo and
Akane, Ukyo having been adopted, and Kodachi committed. Shampoo was,
according to Amazon law, already married to him, which did complicate
matters since he hadn't consummated their vows, but after the
Saffron incident Cologne was smart enough to keep her away from his
business. As lawful as her claim was she hadn't pushed it in over
a year. The Tendos on the other hand were on the phone day and night
demanding that he return and marry Akane, despite the fact that Akane
had no desire to marry him and he had no desire to marry her. Hell,
she was already fucking Shinnosuke just before he left and Nabiki
knew better than to bug him at home. However benign the fiancée
situation had become in the year, the weight of honor pressed down on
him. Going out drinking with Hiroshi and Daisuke and screwing around
with his girlfriend seemed the only release he ever got between
school and work.

It
was funny he thought that only a little over a year ago the idea of
fucking a girl wouldn't caused him to pass out but now he did all
kinds of kinky things without batting an eyelash. He supposed that
his mother had something to do with it since her long and
embarrassing lectures on sex and women when he moved in began the
slow desensitization process. How he'd hooked up with a weird girl
like Ena still seemed strange considering where she worked, he still
couldn't remember exactly what he'd been doing in Dark Designs.
Still, he had met her and they were a couple…sort of…she still
didn't want to stay more than a night at the house and showed
little interest in anything other than eating, sleeping, working, and
fucking. She was a strange one, a bit cool, definitely had some
significant baggage in her past given the scars on her body. Had she
been beaten in childhood? It probably wasn't since her emotional
scars didn't seem bitter and old but rather raw and fresh. A
boyfriend perhaps? That was a distinct possibility given the type of
character a store like Dark Designs catered to, hell, it could have
been a lesbian for all he knew.

He
stopped off at a take-out beef bowl and bought two with four eggs and
several cans of tea. Carefully laying the food in his backpack he
bought a single rose from a street vendor and made his way towards
the mall. It seemed unnaturally busy for a Thursday afternoon, there
were a lot of high school couples walking hand-in-hand down the
boulevard window shopping or eating in the many cafes. Ranma
couldn't quite put his finger on what seemed so off, almost like
the ground was moving under his feet even though he knew it couldn't
possibly be moving fast enough to produce the subtle vertigo effect.
He hid the wrapped rose in the back of his waistband and strolled
down past the fountain into the open-air mall. Dark Designs stood in
a short little alley off the beaten path between a piercing palace
and an arcade.

Ena
was still leaning over the counter when he entered and paid him no
attention until he was standing in front of her. Recognition lit
behind her eyes and she blinked into focus, noting the strange way he
was standing. She sniffed the air and knew he'd brought lunch.
Motioning for the new girl, Sara, to watch the counter while she took
lunch, the couple ducked into the backroom and cleared a sewing
table. Ai, the owner, made all the clothes and alterations herself
in back, so fabric and thread scraps were strewn all about.

Ranma
pulled out their lunch and dropped the knapsack beside his stool,
setting the rose down on top. Ena hadn't noticed, too intent on
mixing her egg. The two didn't say much of anything, there was
very little to talk about and they rarely had long conversations but
this was not to say they were distant with one another, rather they
had the ability to sense the other's mood and respond without
words. Sometimes it felt they held entire conversations through
touch and proximity, conversations so deep that Ranma serious
wondered if he imagined their bond. He watched her eat the ribs and
suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his heart, as if he'd lost her
even though she sat right before him. He really wanted her to move
in with him and get out of the stinking hellhole her apartment was,
it was part of the reason they always went to his place. She really
spend more time at his house than her own but she didn't want to
acknowledge the depth of her relationship with him and so rejected
any discussion of moving into the house.

They
ate for the next twenty minutes, saying nothing but speaking volumes
through a touch, a breath, a glance; once they finished Ranma brushed
back her bangs and cradled the hinge of her jaw. With the other hand
he plucked the rose from the floor and presented it to her with a
smile. He didn't miss her wince or the way her jaw clenched when
the red rose came up, she always seemed to have the same reaction –
was she that against having a meaningful relationship? He knew that
their interaction was the first true relationship he'd had with a
woman in an intimate manner, he felt more comfortable in her presence
than in his mother's and could overlook any of her faults. Even
her scars, he'd never asked about them, simply let them be like an
elephant in the room until she was ready to tell him who had cut her
up so badly. He hoped that someday he could give her a rose and not
have her flinch.

"You
shouldn't have." Her voice was light and high, girlish despite
her appearance, and it was not so unbelievable that she was only
seventeen.

Ranma
smiled and pressed the wrapped stem into her hand. "But I did."

"I
don't have anywhere to put it, it'll just die. Why don't you
take it home with you?"

"It
won't die, just put it in a cup of water. This is for you, I know
it's cheap but I want you to have it."

Ena
turned away and got up off her stool. "I have to get back. I'll
see you tonight." She pressed the rose back into his hands.

Ranma
shook his head, cleaned up the mess, and walked out without so much
as a goodbye kiss from his girlfriend.

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